242 THE LAND'S END 



The Towans occupy the ground on both sides of 

 the estuary. On the south side is the ancient village 

 of Lelant, once threatened with destruction by the 

 shifting sands ; now the square old church tower, as 

 you approach it from St. Ives, is seen standing bravely 

 above the rush-grown hills and hummocks made 

 harmless for ever. On the north side of the estuary 

 is Hayle, a small decayed town, and the ancient 

 village and church of Phillack, and behind the village 

 to the sea and on either hand miles upon miles of 

 towans. There is a ferry at Lelant, and the ferryman 

 has his little ramshackle hut at the foot of a sandhill, 

 a little below the church, and here I often came to be 

 rowed over to the other side, where it was wilder and 

 more solitary. There I could spend hours at a stretch 

 without seeing a human being or hearing any sound 

 of human life. From the top of a high towan I 

 could get a fine view of the Bay, with St. Ives' little 

 town and rocky island on the further side ; while 

 looking along the coastline on the right hand, the 

 white tower of Godrevy Lighthouse on its rock was 

 seen at the end of the Bay, and beyond it the blue 

 Atlantic. Coming down from my look-out all the 

 wide exhilarating prospect would vanish ocean and 

 Bay and distant town, with cliffs and hills and I 

 would be in another world, walking on the soft sand 

 and moss in hollow places among the tall sere rushes 

 with their old bleached seed spikes. " They have no 

 song the sedges dry," sings the poet, but in his 

 heart, he adds, they touched a string and for him 

 they had a song. So it was with these dry rushes ; 



